Powers/Abilities: Piper can psionically
control animals through melodies he plays on a flute to help focus his
powers. Using his instrument, he can easily tame otherwise savage
creatures such as Manhattan's sewer alligator population. The Piper has
also been seen controlling large numbers of bats, frogs, rats and even
cats. Without his flute, he immediately loses all control over his pets
(see comments).

Height: 5'9"Weight: 170 lbs.Eyes: BlueHair: Grey

History:

(Power Pack I#11 - BTS) - Through unrevealed
circumstances, the mutant who became known as the Piper was cast out of
regular society. He found and joined the Morlocks, an underground
mutant community and soon found a home for himself in the sewer tunnels
of New York, using his powers to "befriend" many of the animals sharing
the sewers with him. Piper befriended a group of Morlocks that stuck
relatively close to the surface world. The band of outcasts called
themselves the Drain Dwellers.

(Uncanny X-Men I#193 - BTS) - After the Marauder
Scalphunter anonymously killed several of Annalee's children, their
bodies were discovered by Sunder and the others who returned them to
the Alley where an inconsolable Annalee learned the fate of her
offspring.

(Power Pack I#12 - BTS) - The empathic Annalee
experienced severe emotional distress after the loss of her children.
Her misery subconsciously started influencing the mood of her fellow
Morlocks; Ape, Erg, Tar Baby and the Piper. Feeling responsible for the
kids' deaths, the band of Morlocks felt obligated to replace them. In
the hopes of attracting children, the Piper controlled a cat. After
tying a tin can to the cat's tail so it would seem in distress, Piper
used his powers to have him running around the streets of Manhattan in
the hopes of attracting children.

(Power Pack I#11) - Spotting the cat, the heroic
preteens known as Power Pack decided to help and rescue the poor
animal. It lured them into the sewers however (undoubtedly thanks to
the Piper's influence). When the super powered siblings were surprised
and split up by suddenly rising water levels, Jack and Julie Power got
attacked by alligators who where under the Piper's control. Alex and
Katie managed to track down their family and fought off the alligators
so they could escape from the sewers with the cat in tow. However,
during the chaos the children lost their backpacks and text books. The
Piper found them and figured the children would return to search for
their belongings. He took the books and vowed to wait for their return.

(Power Pack I#12) - When Power Pack realized their
backpacks were still in the sewers, they decided to go back and collect
them. Immediately upon returning to the sewers, they were approached by
the Piper and his fellow Morlock Drain Dwellers Erg, Ape and Tar Baby.
After a brief struggle the Morlocks managed to capture Power Pack and
took them to Annalee who was thrilled to have new children to take care
off. Beautiful Dreamer panicked when she realized Annalee's replacement
family came from the surface. Piper managed to assure her they were
captured in the storm drains so no one would miss them. He also wanted
her to change their memories with her dream smoke, so they would never
remember any other home than the Alley. They also summoned Masque to
change the childrens' features, turning them into full fledged
Morlocks. As soon as Masque arrived, Power Pack managed to escape and
fought the Morlocks with the help of X-Men members Nightcrawler and
Shadowcat who happened to be visiting the Morlocks at the time. After
an intense struggle, the children were freed. Piper and the others
begged the two X-Men not to tell Callisto what they had done, fearing
what she might do to them. As a sign of good will, Piper returned the
schoolbooks to the children as they were leaving.

(Thor I#364) - While transformed into a frog, Norse
thunder god Thor ended up in the Morlock tunnels, towing a bunch of
dead rats with him, he was seeking aid that would help the frogs of the Central Park reservoir survive a concerted attack by the rats.
As such he came upon the Piper who was playing a random tune to his
alligators. Intrigued by a frog who towed rats with him he hoped to
learn more and used his powers to control the frog to jump towards him.

(Thor I#365) - Thor, however used his strength to
jump on Piper and hit him in the head. Figuring the Piper's flute was
the source of his powers, Frog Thor grabbed the instrument. Without his
instrument to focus his powers the alligators turned against their
master as the Piper fled to higher ground through one of the manholes.
Frog Thor than managed to lead the alligators to Central Park as well
to lay assault on the rats, having tracked down the frog the Piper
almost smashed Thor with a rock and reclaimed his flute. Feeling that
the frog wasn't exactly what he seemed he told Thor about his home and
the Morlocks and that he was moved to see a creature that would risk
its own life to save his brothers and sisters. Offering his help for
the future the Piper once again played his flute to command all his
alligators and the park's rats to join him in returning to the sewers.

(Uncanny X-Men I#211) - When the Marauders entered
the Alley and began massacring the Morlocks en masse, Piper was one of
the first Morlocks who used his powers to fight the Marauders, playing
his flute to draw all his pets from their holes to attack the
Marauders. They however were no match as the Piper was found dead when
the X-Men arrived on the scene.

(Thor I#373 - BTS) - While in Central Park Thor was
contacted by a frog called Puddlegulp he had met previously, it told
him the alligators had began to die with terrible screaming heard from
the sewers. Recalling the events of his meeting the Piper, Thor decided
to investigate the situation and ended up fighting the Marauders,
avenging the Morlocks' deaths.

The Piper is of course named after the storybook
character the Pied Piper of Hamelin by the Brothers Grimm (Hamelin,
incidentally, is the Dutch town Haarlem). In his first appearance, the
Piper lived up to his fairy tale namegiver by luring away the Power
Pack children. The Piper was absolutely powerless without his flute to
control his subjects. You'd think that over the years, he might have
developed certain whistling sounds to allow him to retain even the most
basic of control.

Piper, as part of the Morlocks, was profiled in the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition#9, Marvel
Encyclopedia: X-Men.

Using his mutant powers, the Piper tamed most of the
animals living in the underground. Chief among them were a group of
alligators that had taken up residence in the Manhattan sewers. He even
gave some of them affectionate nicknames like Rudolph, and fitted his
pets with leashes. However, the alligators only tolerated Piper because
of his powers, without them they wouldn't think twice about turning on
him (as shown in Thor I#365). Piper used the alligators to round up
Power Pack when they were lost in the sewers. Later, the reptilians
made their way up to Central Park where they assaulted a large group of
rats who were battling a group of frogs at the time (Thor was among the
frogs, turned into an amphibian by a magical enchantment). When the
Piper reclaimed his flute he steered the alligators back to the sewers.
Some time later, he summoned the gators to help out his fellow Morlocks
during their fight against the murderous Marauders. However, the sewer
creatures were no match for the seasoned mutant assassins. The
Marauders killed all of Piper's alligators, which was witnessed by one
of the frogs the deceased gators had helped to protect. Determined to
avenge the alligators, the frog sought out Thor so he could pay back
the Marauders for their crimes.